s and turn them against each other. They allowed and
even encouraged the formation at Frankfort of a provisional Parliament,
called the Fore-Parliament, which looked toward a permanent central
Government at that place for united Germany. Of this body Dr. Neumann
was a member. It was a fine field for the display of his free and
liberal instincts, and we cannot conceive of his passing through its
debates without making large drafts upon his exhaustless fund of humor
and sarcasm. It would be strange, indeed, if he could witness the dawn
of that freedom which he loved without showing signs of exultation,
accompanied with occasional taunts at the regime which was passing away
and seemed already beyond recovery.
But, although a regular Parliament followed--although a quasi emperor
was elected in the person of the Archduke John of Austria, and
his way, as he proceeded to Frankfort, was a perfect triumphal
procession--although he selected his ministers, set them to work, and
Parliament was progressing with its constitution, and this continued for
almost a year, still, that which the shrewd ministers of some of the
sovereigns had doubtless foreseen and waited for, came. Radicals outran
their wiser and more rational brethren, and took up arms. They would
demolish at once those sovereignties which would have died by the slow
action of time, had the central Government been fully established and
wisely administered. But this new Government rather deliberated than
acted. That which more than all else arouses the German mind--the
Schleswig-Holstein question, identified as it is with the great question
of the unity of the Teutonic race--was not taken up by the Government at
Frankfort, but by that at Berlin. In the mean time the several
Governments of Bavaria, Prussia, and Austria had gained the mastery over
their own domestic revolutions, so that they could act more freely.
Austria called home its archduke and its members in the Frankfort
Parliament, and finally the whole movement subsided into the old order
of things.
The various Governments were now in a position in which they could
punish those disturbers of their peace who had endangered their very
existence. Of these Dr. Neumann was one, and in 1852 he was notified
that his lectures were no longer needed in the university of Munich. It
was doubtless thought that he would make some slight formal concessions,
and be permitted to continue his active duties, as others had done. But
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